High power semiconductor laser diodes have uses in various fields including, among others, aerospace, defense, industrial welding and cutting, medical, and material processing. Relevant laser diode parameters include the brilliance, the optical output power per emitting area and emission angle. The emitting area and emission angle determine the beam quality, typically given as the Beam Parameter Product (BPP). Brilliance relates the output power of a laser diode to the amount of beam divergence for a particular size of the emitting area of the laser diode. Higher brilliance corresponds to greater laser output power for a particular divergence angle. Increasing the lateral width of the emitting area leads to higher power and potentially smaller divergence angle, however due to the increased emission area the brilliance does not necessarily increase in all cases. Furthermore, in case of an optical system with imaging ratio around one, an increase in the lateral size leads to a larger spot size which is not beneficial for fiber coupling or direct applications, such as cutting and welding.